Dr. Monica Hanna, an Egyptian archaeologist, surveys the burial grounds in Abu Sir al Malaq. 'You see dogs playing with human bones, children scavenging for pottery and painted sarcophagi. You also find very well mummified fragments. It is very macabre,' Hanna says. Hanna is a leader in exposing the looting of Egyptian antiquities.

As she and several journalists documented looting at an ancient burial site here, several men – one with a shotgun slung over a shoulder — threatened her.

“I heard one man say, ‘Beat her and take her camera,' ” Hanna said afterward.

When the men phoned for police, she hid her camera's memory card in her shirt. After 45 minutes of argument, she was allowed to leave.

“The locals, who are a part of the looting, don't want the photos out there because then their business stops,” she explained.

Hanna, 30, is a leader in exposing the antiquity-looting that has exploded since Egypt's 2011 revolution. She appears on Egyptian television debating government officials, takes reporters to looted sites, and encourages Egyptians to protect their heritage. To Nigel Hetherington, an archaeologist and co-founder of Past Preservers, which connects academia and media on archaeological issues, she is “amazing … a revolutionary in the true sense of the word.”

“She is out to get the bad guys and harness the feeling the Egyptians have of their own heritage, and turn it into actual force for good,” he said.

When she was 14, Hanna took a school trip to the Egyptian Museum, which holds some of the country's best antiquities, including the King Tut collection. [Wonder how much of it is actually real antiquities these days? Could all be fakes, sold by the Islamists to fund their foreign jihads and to buy bread for the restless 'natives.']

“I sneaked inside the mummification lab” and saw its director at work, she recalled. “I was fascinated, and I asked him if I could come and help.”

She volunteered twice weekly after school; a year later, she helped with mummy restorations. “I helped repair the toes of Thutmose III,” a pharaoh who ruled Egypt nearly 3,500 years ago.

She graduated from American University in Cairo with a bachelor's degree in Egyptology and archaeological chemistry, then earned a master's degree in teaching English, followed by a doctoral degree in archaeological sciences from the University of Pisa, Italy. She is doing post-doctoral studies at Humbolt University, Berlin.

Not everyone appreciates her work; she often receives threatening phone calls: “People say that I am foreign-paid, that I have a foreign agenda, or that I am doing this for personal glory.”

A policeman told her uncle that she should stop because “she is bothering really big people.”

Salima Ikram, Hanna's former teacher and head of American University's Egyptology unit, is not surprised by the threats: “That means she is doing her job well. She is scaring some of the syndicate people who live around and feed off of the antiquities.”

Hanna concedes she may be risking her career: “I might not get future permits to work on archaeological sites from the antiquities ministry. But, then, it's ethics versus career — if I cannot talk about this, then I really have no place to teach my students one day that we have done our best to protect our heritage.”

She is working with three groups to monitor archaeological sites; a website will allow people, including tourists, to anonymously report damaged antiquities. Her commitment arose, she said, because foreign archaeologists were afraid of losing work permits if they spoke up and antiquities inspectors who reported looting were usually ignored.

MEXICO CITY – Archaeologists have discovered a previously unknown Mayan city in
the southeastern state of Campeche, which for its vast extension and
characteristics is believed to have been a seat of government some 1,400 years
ago, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH,
said.

A team of experts headed by Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Sprajc has
christened the site Chactun.

“It is one of the largest sites in the
Central Lowlands, comparable in its extent and the magnitude of its buildings
with Becan, Nadzcaan and El Palmar in Campeche”, Sprajc said in a statement
released by INAH.

The complex covers more than 22 hectares (54
acres).

Based on the number of monuments, at least ten of them with
inscriptions, the city is believed to have been the seat of government for a
extensive area during the period of 600-900 A.D., the researcher
said.

The INAH-backed exploration is financed by the National Geographic
Society and two private companies: Austria’s Villas and Slovenia’s Ars
Longa.

Down through the centuries, Chactun remained hidden in the jungle
on the north of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. According to Sprajc, it forms
part of an area covering more than 3,000 sq. meters (1,150 sq. miles) that has
remained a “total blank” on the Mayan archaeological map.

The millennial
metropolis is one of the nearly 80 sites detected by the Southeast Campeche
Archaeological Recognition Project, launched in 1996. EFE

********************************************************

At Archaeology Magazine
June 19, 2013

Maya City Discovered in Mexico
CAMPECHE, MEXICO—A large Maya city dubbed Chactún, or Red Stone, has been discovered in the jungles of Mexico’s Central Lowlands, in an area once used by loggers, but only recently explored by archaeologists equipped with aerial photographs and images created with LIDAR. The size of the city and its pyramids, palaces, ball courts, and plazas suggest that it was a long-term seat of government some 1,400 years ago. “It is one of the largest sites in the Central Lowlands, comparable in its extent and the magnitude of its buildings with Becan, Nadzcaan, and El Palmar in Campeche,” explained Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Sprajc. The name of a ruler, K’inich B’ahlam, has been found carved on one of the ten stelae unearthed so far at the site. Archaeologists suspect that Chactún will help them understand the relationships between other nearby Maya cities.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Are the women sent home at dusk, fearing rape in this park-like area, similar to what Egyptian and foreign women were subjected to during the "revolution" in Egypt a few years ago, the same revolution that everyone cheered about? Ha! Look who took over there, you fools!

Erdem Gunduz (C) stands in a silent protest at Taksim Square in Istanbul early June 18, 2013. Gunduz, a Turkish man, has staged an eight-hour silent vigil on Istanbul's Taksim Square, scene of violent clashes between police and anti-government protesters in recent weeks, inspiring hundreds of others to follow his lead. Gunduz said he wanted to take a stand against police stopping demonstrations near the square, Dogan news agency reported. REUTERS/Marko Djurica (TURKEY - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS)

Turkey, as is Egypt (and many others in the "Middle East") is a country out of balance. A country out of balance cannot long prevail. It may take some time, but eventually, this country -- it's system -- will fall. A country that began in equality but has degenerated to inequality cannot prevail in the long run. HIStory shows us that this is true (despite HIStory's best efforts to hide the truth from us).

So sad. And yet, after more than six thousand years of recorded HIStory, we still haven't learned the most fundamental of lessons! If the genders are not equal, there IS no equality. Without equality, a system will fail.

It may take what seems like a long time in today's 24/7 world, but it WILL, ultimately, fail.

Fundamentalists of all political and religious persuasions, your Days Are Numbered. Of that, I am one hundred percent certain. I may not live to see it, but I think your end is closer than you think - if you're thinking with anything other than your penises. Sadly, it appears that you do not understand the true meaning behind the tale of the "Handwriting On The Wall." Here is my paraphrase of the rendering into modern English: YOU have been weighed in the scales (of Justice) and have been found wanting. YOUR days are numbered.
This doesn't just apply to Turkey. We've got the same kind of war going on right here in the United States.

Friday night (June 14) I was out with those wild and crazy and - did I say wild, cougars ladies that I ride the bus with on the way home from the office in the evenings. They are so much fun - and good supportive friends, too.

Most of my readers are not familiar with my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The Holler House bar is housed in a building that was built in or around 1908. It houses private residence space on the upper floors, a 2-lane bowling alley in the basement, and a small bar on the first (ground) floor) with private rooms in the back. It is located on South 21st (or is that 20th?) Street and West Lincoln Avenue in an old area of Milwaukee's southside, right across the street from a part of the eastern border of the venerable (and quite beautiful) Forest Home Cemetery.

The building/bar has been owned by the same family since it was first built. Right now, the current owner (who married into the family), Marcy, is in her late 80's. I had not met her, or visited the Holler House, until this past Friday evening. She is a beautiful woman, let me tell you -- she would have been stunning in her younger years. One of the Bus Ladies - JoAnn a/k/a Ginger Snap (snap fingers here, cuz she's a Spicey Cookie), has been hanging out there for years and so I've heard a lot about the Holler House over the past three years or so, since we've gradually built up the Crazy Cougars - okay, some of them don't like the term "cougars" but personally I think it's quite fitting.

Back to Holler House -- A recent fire inspection of the Holler House noted the presence of flammable materials hanging from the ceiling. Said flammable materials consist of various sizes and all types of women's brassieres, the oldest ones hanging up there since women's liberation finally took hold in old-fashioned Milwaukee in the 1970s. The story is that one wild and crazy night some female bar patrons, and Marcy, decided to take them off, take them off, take them ALL OFF, and the bras ended hanging up on various other decorations (I use that term loosely) hanging and/or tacked on to the ceiling and beams that span the width of the room that houses the bar.

The fire inspector issued a citation to the Holler House to remove the flammable material. Marcy, the owner, objected. But as things unfolded, her time to appeal the citation expired prior to when she sought "official" help. Being a law-abiding citizen, Marcy had one of of her relatives remove the offending materials so she would not run the risk of incurring hefty daily fines for violation of the removal order. She then turned to her local alderman and, with the help of friends, contacted local media. This is one savvy lady. One thing led to another and both Alderman and media took up the complaint on her behalf. After all, Marcy argued, those same bras had been hanging up there since the 1970's, and no one ever complained about them being flammable (or inflaming, har :)) before.

Justice has prevailed, TA DA! The order was reversed and rescinded. YAY MILWAUKEE COMMON COUNCIL! YAY PUBLICITY IN THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL/SENTINEL AND LOCAL NEWS STATIONS! YAH ALDERMAN BOB DONOVAN FOR HELPING! The story even made Reuters!

And so Friday tonight, in celebration of being able to once again go back to the way things were before, in a very special celebration, the bras were re-hung, and folks were encouraged to bring in their own bras, donated or purchased, or a selection from Holler House's own extensive collection, to be hung or re-hung from the ceiling of the Holler House Bar! A fund-raiser, YAY! Two local charities close to our hearts, the Hope House and the ABCD Foundation, Melodie Wilson's foundation (Wilson was a former Miss Wisconsin and Miss America contestant, she was a popular local news anchor for many years but, sadly, died of breast cancer at too young an age, leaving young children behind). One could hang a bra, or have it hung on your behalf, for a $5 donation. Five bucks could also purchase a memorial tee shirt. Such a deal! Tees were a hot commodity. Check out the tee I bought -- I hung it on a hanger from my dinette chandy to get a good photo of it:

(Please ignore my messy dinette - I was not expecting to take photos in there last Friday night and the tabletop is cluttered with mail and bills -- got to get around to paying them soon... On a happy note, I purchased a MEDIUM shirt, LARGE is now too big for me to wear, yippee!)

The Holler House jukebox is FABULOUS! It wasn't long before all of us were out in whatever space we could find dancing and grooving. But let me tell you, darlings, the music is LOUD.

I had my camera along but, sadly, most of my pictures are not very good - and no group shot of all of us together: JoAnn, Darlene, Anni, Thelma, Michele, Dodi, and me. Here are some of my photos:

In the photo above, Santa Claus (you'll see him in some later pictures when his face isn't stuffed into hanging brassieres) is up on a ladder hanging my bra -- a satin black underwire Olga bra from the days when I was a svelt 34C (I'm now, sadly, a 38D).

In this photo, our bus buddy Thelma (Thelma and I visited Las Vegas - her first visit ever - in April) is coming down from the ladder after having hung up her own donated black bra. She's so cute! She is too young to be a cougar, she is an "honorary cougar."

Unfortunately, the photo above did not turn out very well, but it's the only photo I've got of our bus buddy Michele, hanging a Holler House bra.

Ginger Snap (a/k/a JoAnn) took this photo of me (left), Anni (middle) and Dodi (right), downstairs at the Holler House lanes. Anni has on one of the Great Bra Re-Hanging tee shirts. I am holding a glass of Chardonnay, and Dodi is holding a cocktail. I have no idea what Anni is holding - maybe a pussy coin purse? She doesn't drink anything except soda. Oh, maybe it's a soda glass. The wall on the right side of the pic was reconstructed some years back to eliminate some foundation problems, and many of the concrete blocks now sports autographs of patrons, fans, and famous and not-so-famous bowlers. It was a hoot reading some of them -- we were careful not to go on to the lanes themselves, we stayed on the approaches. Those approaches were rebuilt a few years back, funded by the Bowling Congress, bless it's heart!

Here's a video taken on Friday June 14, 2013 by one of our local television stations, WTMJ-TV Channel 4 and broadcast on the 10 PM news. About 28 seconds into the actual video (after commercials) you get a glimpse of a group of women inside the bar, including little Anni in a green wig (she looks a little like a lepruchan) and the backs of several of our heads, including mine (I think), LOL! Woo woo - our 15 minutes of fame! Later in the video there is a glimpse of Ginger Snap a/k/a JoAnn can be seen descending from the ladder.

And now you're going to see Santa in his summer garb, courtesy of The Chicago Tribune:

Heh heh heh! As I and Thelma were both there for the hanging of our respective black bras, I can tell you with 100% certainty that my donated bra is covering the right arm of the lady up on the ladder and Thelma's donated bra is partially covering the left arm of said lady. Our bras will go down in herstory... One of our friendly local busdrivers on the route we take to/from work is on the far right. In the lower right hand corner, you can just see Pepper Spray staring into the camera -- is that a "V" for Victory sign she's making - or a "come hither" signal with her hand...

Photo above from The Chicago Tribune, an outshot shot of the Holler House. Like I said, just a small neighborhood bar.

And in this photo you can see our irrepressible Pepper Spray up on the ladder giving a campaign speech (she's running for President of the United States in 2016) and in the lower left hand corner a demure Ginger Snap laughing her ass butt off. ELECT PEPPER SPRAY PRESIDENT IN 2016! She intends to run as a Wisconsin Born-Again Republidem, offering a new, refreshing political alternative to the old boring do-nothing snores in Congress who currently control our "New Normal" USA.

This is cool - "lidar." There are a lot of articles about this discovery, I selected this one.

This video, by Damien Evans of Sydney University, shows some of the on-land treks into the area revealed by the "lidar" data -- it's absolutely fascinating and worth watching -- a little less than 10 minutes long, so lots of information:

For more than a millennium, its temples, canals, roads and statues remained
buried under dense jungle undergrowth in the mountainous Phnom Kulen region of
northwestern Cambodia. Now, a team led by archaeologist Damien Evans of Sydney
University has used the airborne light-scanning technology known as Lidar to
unearth the ancient city of Mahendraparvata, thought to be around 1,200 years
old. Part of the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Empire that ruled much of Southeast Asia
from about A.D. 800 to 1400, the city lies some 25 miles west of the famous
12th-century Hindu temple complex of Angkor Wat, and appears to predate it by
some 350 years.

The area around the mountain known as Phnom Kulen has been revered as a holy
place for centuries, welcoming thousands of pilgrims seeking to bathe and
perform spiritual rites there. In the 1970s, the region was a stronghold of the
Khmer Rouge, the radical communist regime that tried to revive the agricultural
glory of the Angkor era to disastrous effect, including the deaths of more than
1 million people from overwork or starvation and the execution of hundreds of
thousands more. Land mines continue to litter the region, making exploration and
excavation of the region difficult and dangerous.

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald on June 15, Evans and his small team
of archaeologists found the outline of the ancient city confirmed to be
Mahendraparvata by making a detailed map of the area using Lidar laser-scanning
technology. In 2009, Lidar technology was used to reveal terraced farming
systems and roads in the ancient Maya city of Caracol in Belize, Central
America. It was also used at Stonehenge and other archaeological sites in
Europe, but had never before been used for archaeological work in tropical Asia.
To conduct their project, the University of Sydney team had to seek high-level
clearance from the Cambodian government in Phnom Penh.

Evans and his team strapped the scanning equipment to helicopters, which then
flew at an altitude of 800 meters and methodically criss-crossed 370 square
kilometers of northwest Cambodia, collecting billions of data points and about
5,000 digital aerial photographs. Lidar technology works by firing laser
impulses at the landscape, after which a sensor measures how long it takes each
pulse to bounce back. Through repetition, the measurements create a detailed
picture of the landscape.

Several weeks ago, Evans and his team noticed something unusual: the laser
imagery showed a landscape that was completely clear of vegetation. When they
went to confirm the Lidar findings, they found the ruins of six previously
unrecorded temples, as well as ancient canals, dykes and roads. Subsequent
searches revealed another two dozen hidden temple sites. A number of the temples
had been looted, but at least two were intact. In addition, the team found a
cave with historically revealing carvings, used by holy hermits who flourished
during the Angkor period. The light-scanning data also revealed hundreds of
mysterious earth-covered mounds, measuring several meters high, scattered across
the city; these could be tombs for the dead, although that hypothesis is still
unconfirmed.

A one-legged guide named Heng Heap joined Evans on the arduous jungle
expedition, along with a reporter and photographer from Fairfax Media. Heng
Heap, a former Khmer Rouge soldier, was able to guide the team through dense
growth and avoid land mines scattered over landscape he knows intimately. His
own village, Anglong Thom, lies in the middle of the “lost city,” and he had
been aware of some of its structures, but not all. The upcoming excavation of
Mahendraparvata is expected to provide work—in the form of clearing vegetation
and preserving historical sites—for local villagers, many of whom are
undernourished.

It is not known yet quite how big the city was, as the Lidar search covered
only a circumscribed area, and Evans told reporters that “there is a lot of work
to be done to discover the extent of this civilization.” Archaeological
research—including analysis of sculptured caves and river beds—indicates that
the region encompassing the lost city remained occupied throughout the Angkor
period (between the ninth and 16th centuries). Angkor Wat, the temple complex
constructed in the 12th century by the Khmer ruler Suryavarman II, was first
“discovered” by Westerners in the 1860s, but had been used by local peoples for
religious purposes for centuries before that. It has been named a UNESCO World
Heritage Site and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Reflecting on possible reasons for Mahendraparvata’s demise, Evans suggested
that the “severe environmental impact of deforestation and the dependence on
water management” may have led to its downfall, as the city may have become “too
successful to the point of becoming unmanageable.” [Hey China - hint hint...]

Monday, June 17, 2013

Of course, contractors are doing the same thing here in the USA every day, you just don't read about it in the press because not enough people give a damn. Have you ever read of a construction contractor on U.S. soil being brought up on criminal charges for violating federal (and state) laws on deliberately destroying historical artifacts? I'd like to hear about it! We didn't send one fricking asshole to jail for their criminal activities in causing the Second Great Depression 2007 and ongoing still, so I I seriously doubt the government is chasing after any contractor for destroying ancient burial sites or entire villages for that matter.

One wonders if this Chinese contractor will be slapped with a tiny fine because of public outcry, and then of course, the Chinese central government will enact yet more restrictions on the internet and ban more sites and more news.

Guangzhou Metro is facing a public outcry after contractors destroyed a group of ancient imperial tombs in the Menggang district during construction of Line 6 of its subway system.

The tombs, ranging from 2,200 to more than 3,000 years old and still being studied by archaeologists, were wrecked by excavators on Friday night.

The protected site, on the eastern slope of Da Gong mountain, had been sealed off by the Guangzhou Archaeology Research Centre, with warning signs posted and red lines marking the protected area. It was fine when archaeologists left on Friday but had been torn up by the time they returned on Saturday.

"Yesterday we were still conducting archaeological excavations, but all five tombs were gone this morning," said an archaeologist quoted by Southern Metropolis Daily yesterday.

One of the archaeology technicians responsible for the site, Miao Hui , said: "At least five of them were destroyed … this time. They date from the late Shang dynasty to the Warring States. This is not the first time the construction company has destroyed ancient tombs. The area they dug up was sealed by red lines. They even specifically moved our archaeological tools aside before blazing in."

A foreman hired by the centre said the site was impossible to miss. "We have begun working with one of the tombs and used plastic film to cover the unfinished site. It's a very large and obvious target, it's impossible that the workers could miss it."

Yesterday's reports in most Guangzhou media put the number of tombs at five, while Xinhua reported on Saturday that six tombs were destroyed.

A manager for Guangzhou Metro's construction agent said the workers were confused by unclear warning signs and markings left by the archaeologists.

A Guangzhou Metro spokesman said the construction work had already been approved by the archaeology centre, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

However, it was reported that the centre wrote to the company last month to say the site had not been cleared for construction. The research centre's director, Zhang Qianglu , said the slope's densely packed tombs had significant historical value.

The subway project is reported to have destroyed more than a dozen ancient tombs in the first five months of the year.

The damage has triggered an outcry online, with internet users describing it as outrageous and shameless. One said she did not believe it was simply a mistake. "The constructor has never taken the historical relics seriously. If you are not sure where to dig, why don't you ask? They must be severely punished, otherwise we'll only see more cultural relics being destroyed."

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Guangzhou subway work destroys five ancient tombs.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day to all the dads! You've got a fabulous warm, sunny (albeit humid) day here in Milwaukeeland and I hope you will have a wonderful time today.

Standings through Round 3 are in on the 2013 Milwaukee Summer Challenge hosted by my adopted chess club, Southwest Chess Club. The final two rounds of action are today, beginning at 10 a.m. Things will wrap up in plenty of time for everyone to get home and enjoy grilling out or going to their favorite restaurant for a father's day treat! Here are the standings for the chess femmes thus far - and I'm showing the leaders in each section, too, for comparison purposes:

Our Commitment to Chess

Scholarships for Chess Femmes

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2012 Goddesschess Canadian Women's Closed Chess Championship

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Hales Corners Chess Challenge XIXApril 12, 2014Milwaukee, WIPrizes for female players in Open and Reserve sections and paid entry to next HCCC for top female finisher in each section. This is Goddesschess' 12th HCCC!

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Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIIIOctober 12, 2013Milwaukee, WIRecord prize money awarded to chess femmes - $800!In honor of National Chess Day and the one year anniversary of the passing of our webmaster, researcher and writer, Don McLean, additional prizes of $150 were awarded to the top two male finishers in each Section.Milwaukee Summer Challenge IIJune 15 - 16, 2013Milwaukee, WIPrizes for the chess femmes and funding a best game prize

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"Advanced Chess" Leon 2002

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...